Stocks End Bad Week on Good Note

The Nasdaq leads the way up as the major indices stanch a four-day slide.

Stocks ended a four-day rout with sharp gains Friday, but the rally couldn't prevent two of the major indices from posting their worst weekly performance in a year.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 111.70 points, or 1.1%, to 10,240.08; the S&P 500 added 13.82 points, or 1.25%, to 1120.60; and the Nasdaq jumped about 40.82 points, or 2.1 %, to 1984.71.

Volume was extremely light as traders shied away from new positions ahead of the weekend. On the New York Stock Exchange about 1.4 billion shares changed hands, while almost 1.7 billion shares were traded on the Nasdaq. Advancers outnumbered decliners by about 7 to 2 on both exchanges.

Friday's gains reduced the loss for the week but didn't come close to erasing it. Over the five sessions, the Dow lost 356 points, or 3.4%, while the Nasdaq dropped 63 points, or 3.1%, and the S&P 500 fell 37 points, or 3.2%.

The Dow suffered its biggest weekly point loss since a 377-point slide last March, while the Nasdaq had its biggest loss in about 15 months. The S&P 500's loss was its worst weekly decline since a 39-point selloff last September.

On Thursday, stocks completed a long-awaited 5% retreat from their recent highs, with the Dow falling 168 points, or 1.6%, to 10,128 -- its lowest close since Dec. 15. The blue-chip index shed 467 points, or 4.4%, in the last four sessions.

Jason Trennert, a chief investment strategist with ISI Group, sees the week's carnage as a brief pause in a bull market. "We don't sense that there is any major, fundamental change that's happened in the economy, and we think valuations are reasonable," he said. "Our expectation is that the market will start to do better once we get closer to earnings season."

"We believe that the market has gotten too defensive here," Trennert added. "Essentially, people have gotten too enamored of very defensive groups like staples and are not interested enough in cyclical sectors like industrials, materials and energy."